Email to Cat      

St. Augustine Orange Rolls

Source of Recipe

From "The Heritage of Southern Cooking" by Camille Glenn


List of Ingredients

• 2 packages dry yeast
• ¼ cup lukewarm water
• 1 cup milk
• 8 Tbsp (1 stick) butter, cut into pieces
• ½ cup sugar
• ¼ cup fresh orange juice
• 1½ Tbsp grated navel orange peel
• 1 tsp grated lemon peel
• 2 eggs
• 1 egg yolk
• 1½ tsp salt
• 5½ cups all-purpose flour, sifted

Glaze:

• 1 cup sifted confectioners' sugar
• 2 Tbsp grated navel orange peel
• ½ cup fresh orange juice


Recipe

Dissolve the yeast in the water. Scald the milk, but do not allow it to boil. Pour it into a large bowl, or into the bowl of an electric mixer or food processor. Add the butter, sugar, orange juice, orange peel, and lemon peel. Mix well until the butter has melted. Add the eggs, yolk, and dissolved yeast, and beat thoroughly. Add the salt, and beat in 4 cups of the flour, 2 cups at a time, until the dough is smooth. Place the dough on a lightly floured surface and knead it thoroughly, 2 minutes. Add just enough flour to keep it from being too sticky. The dough should feel elastic and satiny.

Place the dough in a well-greased bowl, turning it to coat the surface. Set the bowl in a warm place, free from drafts. Cover it with plastic wrap and allow the dough to rise until doubled in bulk. It should spring back at once when lightly touched, 1½ hours. (At this stage, the dough may be punched down, covered with foil, and placed in the refrigerator for a few hours or overnight - no longer. Cold dough is easier to handle than warm dough, and this is a sticky dough.)

When you are ready to use the dough, place it again on a lightly floured surface and knead for 3 minutes. Divide the dough in half and roll each piece into a rectangle ½-inch thick and 6 inches wide. Cut each rectangle into strips 1 inch wide. Take each strip and pull it a bit, then tie it into a simple knot by slipping one end over, then under, then back over the other. Arrange the knots 1½ inches apart on nonstick or lightly greased baking sheets. Place them in a warm spot, cover with plastic wrap, and allow the rolls to become light and springy, and almost tripled in bulk, 1 to 1¼ hours.

Preheat the oven to 350°F.
Place the baking sheets on the middle shelf of the oven, and bake only until golden brown and a skewer inserted in the center of a roll comes out clean, 15 to 18 minutes. To ensure moist rolls, do not overbake.

While the rolls are baking, blend together the frosting ingredients. Brush the baked rolls generously with the frosting while they are still hot.

Makes 36 rolls


• Variation:
Sprinkle the frosted rolls with extra grated orange peel or with grated blanched almonds. Most attractive, indeed.